former cia director david petraeus kept out of sight until he got home. lawmakers had cleared the way for him to get to the closed-door hearing without walking through halls. a favorite of the general who apologized to lawmakers for his affair. petraeus testified the cia figured immediately it was al qaeda that attacked the sufficient consulate in benghazi, killing the u.s. ambassador and three others. how the cia with an eye on libya missed the threat is still under investigation. but petraeus' testimony helped. >> it added to our ability to make judgments about what is clearly a failure of intelligence. >> reporter: it did not end the fight over u.n. ambassador susan rice, who, five days after the attack, denied it was al qaeda. using cia public talking points that dropped the al qaeda reference. >> and she did entirely the responsible thing in answering questions based on what was unclassified. >> reporter: but rice had a motive to spin the story on "meet the press." barack obama running for reelection, he might name her secretary of state. >> this is